House Human Services delays vote, schedules presentations on coordinated entry and assessment
Loading...
Summary
The House Human Services committee postponed a vote on its homelessness bill to hear presentations from Chittenden County and other Continuums of Care about coordinated entry assessments and prioritization; members said they need to see how assessment scores are produced before relying on them for statewide prioritization.
The House Human Services committee postponed a planned vote on its homelessness bill and asked for more information about the coordinated entry assessment process before moving forward.
The committee’s moderator (Speaker 1) told members they would not vote this week and that the panel would continue work with the intent to consider a vote next week if a clear path emerges while key staff are available. “We will not be voting on this bill this week,” Speaker 1 said, adding that presentations and written feedback from the Agency of Human Services and community providers are posted to the committee web page.
Members scheduled presentations from Chittenden County and the balance of state Continuums of Care for tomorrow afternoon so the committee could better understand how coordinated entry assessments generate a prioritization “score.” Several members said they had been told the process produces a final score but had not seen the scoring output. “That process results … in a prioritization, if you will,” Speaker 1 said, noting that committee members need to “hear more about that process and especially if we are going to rely on that for prioritization of needs.”
Committee members from multiple viewpoints said they broadly agree the existing system requires redesign and that relying on hotels and motels as shelters is not ideal. At the same time, members asked how assessment-based prioritization would interact with budget constraints and who would be left out if services are narrowed. “We have to be clear that we’re not going to be serving everybody,” Speaker 1 said, describing the difficult tradeoffs the committee must confront.
The committee also noted it has received written comments from the Agency of Human Services, Vermont Legal Aid, COTS, HHAV and End Homelessness Vermont, among others, which generally called for more time and refinement and urged that system changes be paired with funding. Speaker 1 asked members to review the posted materials in advance of the scheduled presentations.
The committee recessed for a 15-minute break and will reconvene for budget testimony and the scheduled presentations on coordinated entry.
